Tools to Keep Your Center: Ferris Wheel Breath

Since humans can control their breath, you can use your breath to intentionally signal to your nervous system that the bad leadership or work stress you’re dealing with is not actually a life-or-death situation (even though it might feel that way).

The next time you feel overloaded, stressed, or like you want to run away from (or punch) your bad leader, try these breathing exercises.

Ferris Wheel Breath

Think of your breath as having a natural shape to it. Listen to the rhythm of your breath right now - what shape does it take?

• Line: Your breath might draw a line, like an elevator. Inhale up, exhale down.

• Square: Your breath might have some edges to it: inhale up, pause, exhale down, pause.

• Miscellaneous polygon: Your breath might be creative today. Maybe there are more edges or slants or lines or curves. Maybe it changes breath to breath.

Your breath can also take on a circular - or Ferris Wheel - shape breath.

As you inhale, your breath rides to the top of the Ferris Wheel, then instead of pausing, it simply turns into an exhale and rides back down. At the bottom, it turns into an inhale and rides back to the top, and continues.

Try out the circle-shaped breath for a few rounds. You might notice that you have room to make a bigger circle/Ferris Wheel. Try that out for a few rounds of breath.

Return to your natural breath and see how you feel.

The next time a tense conversation, overwhelming email, or an unfair demand threatens to knock you off balance, remember your Ferris Wheel Breath.

This self-regulation technique is a quiet, steady revolution back to center. No matter how fast the world spins around you, you always have the power to return to stillness within.

Originally published on Substack.